Great Western Branch Activity Update 3rd Quarter 2024

 

 

At the last AGM a proposal was put forward and carried to report on the Branches activities on a quarterly basis. The proposal adopted was specific in the ‘headings’ to be used when reporting. This is the first of these reports.

 

Extract from proposal:

 

“This would include basic information the branches industrial activity in terms of meetings, workplace visits, influence and activity, and number of successfully resolved disputes.”

 

 

Meetings

 

Regular meetings have taken place in Openreach Wessex, FTTP, South West Regional BT Committee, Technology and the  Openreach Committee . The Branch has also had meetings in Virgin Media.

 

The Branch has sent officers and members to the CWU National Equality meeting and the Young Workers Event in Cardiff.  Our pensioners have also been represented at the 2 National Pensioners events. We have also had an officer attend the TUC National Conference.

 

 Workplace visits

 

There have been workplace visits taking place across the length and breadth of the Branch’s territory.  These range from regular H & S visits to accident investigations. Recruitment activities and attendance at Disciplinary hearings,  Return 2 Works and Grievances. The pressures on the Branch have risen this year as the number of disciplinary meetings are on the increase. The Branch has been

 

A representative of the Branch travelled to view an installation of the media gateway which needs to be installed prior to decommissioning of an exchange. Questions around contractors and frames work were raised by the Branch.

 

The Branch is unable to share specific details of Disciplinary, Return 2 Works and Grievances because of the confidentiality that is afforded to each case. However, we have set up a data base to log all disciplinaries, Return 2 works and Grievances and in future reports the Branch will be able to give numbers and trends. However there has been support for some eighty cases and additionally hundreds of calls for advice. The Branch is concerned by the rise in discipline cases and the number of terminations of employment.

 

 

Influence and activity

 

For those that pay the political levy, contributions were made to aid the elections for the following Labour candidates:

 

Dan Aldridge, Western super Mare: Elected

Will Stone, Western super Mare: Elected

Lloyd Hatton,  South Dorset : Elected

Clare Moody, Police &  Crime Commissioner Avon & Sommerset: Elected

 

Women’s Report; Following the success of the Women’s survey conducted by the Great Western branch, Openreach have now conducted their own national survey around females’ experiences working for Openreach.

 

The Branch’s new website continues to be kept regularly updated since its redesign earlier this year.  I urge all our members to visit the website to keep updated and access useful information.

 

 

Training

 

New and potential officers have attended Union Representative courses so that they are fully trained and able to represent members. Further training is scheduled for the next quarter.

 

 

Successfully resolved disputes

 

There have been significant “wins’ for individual members around P&Ds, special leave, pay, redundancy and adjustments enabling returning to work. Due to confidentiality restrictions, specific details cannot be shared.

 

Other Branch activity

 

The branch is concerned by the service our members are receiving from UnionLine regarding Tribunal representation. The Branch has written to both Karen Rose and Dave Ward to express its concerns as the service level from UnionLine is inadequate.